[NextGenderation]
www.grassrootsfeminism.net]
PRESS RELEASE
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Grassroots Feminism: Transnational archives, resources and communities
Official launch of the online community platform and living history archive:
www.grassrootsfeminism.net
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Austria, February 25, 2009
Website launch to coincide with International Women’s Day, March 8, 2009.
The interactive network portal
www.grassrootsfeminism.netis a new and
unique feminist meeting point. This website aims to establish
transnational feminist networks and to archive cultural and political
activities of the grassroots feminist movement worldwide.
Grassroots Feminism: Transnational archives, resources and communities is
a user-generated Web 2.0Â tool, encouraging anyone with an interest in
feminist culture, activism or politics to participate - by uploading their
projects, viewing or adding to the digital archives, sharing interviews
with feminist activists and media makers, and creating their own profiles.
By providing an interactive network and research platform, this website
aims to make the work and activism of transnational feminists more
accessible, as well as to establish a “living history� archive. The
website provides a democratic tool for providing and sharing information
and resources on feminist practice and theory, to used by feminist
activists, supporters and scholars alike.
The website is founded and maintained by Elke Zobl, the creator behind the
popular Grrrl Zine Network web portal. She says: “Young women, queer and
trasgender folks in many countries today are engaged in an exciting
variety of activist, cultural and political practices which need to be
documented before they are lost to history. The aim of Grassroots Feminism
is to counter some of the stereotypes about the post-feminist or
third-wave feminist generation being preoccupied with pleasure and
personal lives. But this site is not just for young women and their
allies: we hope it will also become a tool for people of all ages and
backgrounds to link up their struggles and create more cultural, social,
political, environmental, and economic coalitions."
Website adminstrator Red Chidgey, a self-confessed DIY feminist and
grassroots media historian, states: "For any feminist activist or
researcher interested in mapping women's movements worldwide there is
always the problem of access and fragmentation. Grassroots Feminism aims
to bring together the benefits of the internet and broadcast a lively,
constantly updated, feminist museum into your living room. By reclaming
cyberspace for a united feminist archive and platform, we believe this
site will provoke and sustain conversations and actions across countries
and cultures. And because tool-kits for social change are crucially
important too, there are also facilities for uploading how-to guides and
teaching materials. The ethos of the site is mutual aid, empowerment,
shared information, and connections."
A 10 minute Grassroots Feminist Media Survey is also featured online. With
feminist media being so diverse and ephermeral it is important to collect
our histories and trace connections between countries and generations.
There are also opportunities for grassroots media producers and consumers
to participate in longer interviews, with material going towards a
proposed book that the website team are working on from the material on
the site.
Other preview highlights include graphics from a second wave poster-making
collective, Ladyfest digital archives, a guide to anti-racist audits of
activist spaces, and fully searchable project listings. Contributors and
projects span Latin America, Europe, Africa, Asia, New Zealand, and North
America - all are invited to access and contribute to this growing archive
to represent a truly global picture of feminism today.
About:
Grassroots Feminism: Transnational archives, resources and communitiesis a
feminist interactive network site and â living history� archive.
·     The site is organized and maintained by Elke Zobl from
Salzburg, Austria (
www.grrrlzines.net), with Red Chidgey, UK
(
www.redchidgey.net), and Jenny Gunnarsson Payne, Sweden.
Work on this the website forms part of Elke Zobl’s research project
"Young women as producers of new cultural spaces". The “Grassroots Media
in Europe Archive� has been established by the web site team within the
research project "Feminist Media Production in Europe". Both research
projects are funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and are based at
the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Austria.
Website graphics are provided by intricate paper-cut artist Nikki McClure,
www.nikkimcclure.com
Contact/Interview Requests:
Elke Zobl, elke@???
Please distribute this information. Thank you!
.................................................. Elke Zobl, Roemerweg
22, 5061 Elsbethen, Austria
www.grrrlzines.net
www.grassrootsfeminism.net Â
tel +43 664 84 82 371
